Within reason, that is. Obviously, you can’t immediately address EVERY single attention magnet that crosses your path.

But when you can, reduce your average response time.

For three reasons:

1. It’s memorable. When you call a customer back right away, it’s unexpected. This is a good thing. After all: The most effective way to capture customers’ attention is to B-R-E-A-K her patterns. And, in a world of ineffective, impersonal customer service, doing so will immediately set you apart from everyone else who takes three days to reply.

2. It demonstrates that you value people. The speed of the response IS the response. The medium IS the message. So, when customers are replied to immediately, they feel special. And listened to. And important. And valued. Which makes them want to continue doing business with you.

3. It builds trust. Sure, quickly returning a phone call or email is small thing. But it’s the accumulation of those small things that builds familiarity and predictability. This approachable action positively frames the entire customer encounter. It sets the stage for successful service and informs the customer how she can expect to be treated from here on in. And THAT IS how you build trust.

Now, some people will make arguments against this style of communication.

That it might come off as desperate.

That it might destroy your Big Shot allure.

Well, maybe that’s true in some cases.

All I know is, I’ve been practicing this principle whenever possible.

And I’ve NEVER had a customer say, "Wow, you return calls too fast!"

So, even if you’re skeptical about returning calls faster, I still challenge you to increase your average response time.

Because nobody else does stuff like that.

And usually, the stuff nobody else does tends to be the stuff customers love.